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Mead Loren B: The Once and Future Church (New York Alban 1992)

"Denominations once structured to deliver resources to the old boundaries must now encounter the mission field in the lay person's workplace. In a post-Christendom era the old assumptions are breaking down. Thus the church needs to be -- and in fact is becoming -- reinvented for the new mission." [Quote inside fron cover]

Mead documents the passing of the Christendom paradigm -

"Somehow the world the nation the environment is no longer the same as the church ... in some new way we are conscious of the world as separate from different from the church ... we can no londger assume that everybody is a Christian ... people no longer assume that the community is a unit of the religious world ... we now assume that the front door of the church is a door into mission territory not just a door to the outside." [Quote p.25]

- and sketeches what he sees as the emerging paradigm while acknowledging that it is uncertain. He notes that some people in the church are unaware of the changed age and unwilling to let go of the Christendom paradigm even though it is now part of our past.

"The reappearance of the frontier of mission on the church's doorstep has shifted mission responsibility more and mor eonto the shoulders of the laity bringing their role to new prominence and power.... [Clergy discover that] instead of being front-line leaders and spokespersons for mission they now feel they are being asked to take a back seat to a newlay awakened laity. Many are unsure how to give leadership in the new time." [Quote p.34]

"Clergy and laity alike struggle with two realities in congregations today:

  1. it is harder and harder to maintain the congregational structures and systems that have served so many generations so well ...
  2. ... urgent needs are calling for more caring ministries ... the need for strong congregations comes at the very time when congregations are fragile and uncertain and their primary support system is threatened.
" [Quote pp 40-41]

Mead identifies three polarities which come into play as the church reinvents itself:
  1. Parish vs Congregation (turf vs people)
  2. Servanthood vs Conversion (of the world)
  3. Exclusive vs Inclusive (strict boundaries vs loose)

He admires systems af nurture and pastoral care which are expressions of the Christendom paradigm but contends that the emerging paradigm critically requires systems of formation for the laity specifically Catechuminates and Turning-point Ministries.

"Near total ignorance of the biblical story and of the faith is more and more the norm... Young people and adults now come to churches with absolutely no previous experience with any religious group or tradition ... [also] each life crisis will need to be seen as an opportunity for growing deeper in faith -- not just getting through the crisis. ...